Details

Letter from Luke Hall, Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing to all caravan and park home site owners to make clear that they should remain open for key workers and vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Luke Hall MP
Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing

Ministry of Housing, Communities and
Local Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Tel: 0303 444 3460
Email: luke.hall@communities.gov.uk
27 March 2020

Dear Colleague,

I am asking for your support in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.

This week the Government stepped up measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. These are vitally important steps to encourage people to stay at home, and in doing so protect the NHS and save lives.

On Tuesday the Government published guidance outlining a list of circumstances in which businesses providing holiday accommodation should stay open. In particular, I want to make clear that where caravan and park home sites are housing people who would otherwise have nowhere to live, or are providing accommodation to key workers or vulnerable groups, such as homeless households, through arrangements with local authorities and other public bodies, they should remain open to those groups only and
not remove them from their homes. The site should remain closed to those who are not key workers or vulnerable groups.

If your site has any vulnerable or self-isolating people without support networks that are, for instance, experiencing problems with food supply then please contact your local authority for further advice.

If closing your site as a result of the measures announced this week has made anybody homeless, you should immediately reverse this decision. I also ask that you work cooperatively with your local authority to provide accommodation to key workers and those who are homeless because of this crisis where needed.

This situation requires everyone to work together to save lives and provide care for some
of the most vulnerable in our society.

LUKE HALL MP

Guidance

COVID-19 advice for accommodation providers

Guidance and advice for those providing hotel and other accommodation in the UK.

Businesses providing holiday accommodation (including hotels, hostels, B&Bs, campsites, caravan parks, boarding houses and short term lets) should now take steps to close for commercial use as quickly as is safely possible.

Full consideration should be given to the possible exclusions for residents that should be allowed to remain. Any decision to close should be implemented in full compliance with the social distancing guidelines.

What the exclusions mean

Hotels and other accommodation providers should be able to remain open if:

They are part of the response to support key workers or vulnerable groups.

There is a specific need for some or all of the site to remain open (for example they are housing people who have been flooded out of their homes, being used by public services to provide emergency accommodation or are not able to return to their primary residence).

If businesses are providing rooms to support homeless people, through arrangements with local authorities and other public bodies, they should remain open.

If a holiday park or caravan park is your primary residence you can remain on site.

Guidance for families in temporary accommodation or B&Bs

If the temporary accommodation is currently the family’s primary residence, they can remain.

People staying in accommodation that have symptoms of Covid-19

If anyone is displaying signs of the Covid-19 virus (cough, fever), they should not be using public transport. If they are not symptomatic but they need to return to where they live, then using public transport is ok. When using public transport people should try to adhere to the simple social distancing principles of being two metres apart.

Guidance for hotels serving food

Hotels and accommodation providers that are remaining open to house key workers, vulnerable groups and other exempted groups will still be able to serve food, subject to the social distancing guidelines (for example by providing a takeaway service, ‘grab and go’ service or room service).